Healing
by E.J. O'Hera
Summary: This is just a little bit of follow-up.  Takes place after the end of the series, and will obviously have some darkness after everything the characters have been through, but focuses on happiness and love.  Lots of Ron Her and Harry Jen


**This is just a sweet little Ron and Hermione blirb. Takes place after the 7****th**** book. Not sure yet if this will develop at all beyond the two chapters I have planned in my head, but let me know what y'all think. Enjoy!**

The celebrations were not done, far from it. There were many cheers to be cheered and tears to be cried. The aftermath of the fall of the Dark Lord would be the echo in the background of every conversation and taint every scene for many years to come. Those who had lived through would never truly move beyond the terror and the loss, but they would also forever remember the overwhelming joy of freedom finally returned.

For the Wesley family, a hole had been punched through their spirit. They felt that joy, no doubt about it. It was not any less because of what they had lost, but one thing broke every single heart of the family. Fred. Fred was gone. The strength of their sorrow and relief and pride and pain all mixed to exhaust the redheaded wizards. As the bedlam continued around them, the family and Harry and Hermione all slumped away together in an overwhelmed troop, wordlessly threw flew powder into the first fireplace they found, and retreated to the Burrow.

One Month Later

"What time is her train getting in?" Ron asked for about the fifteenth time.

"It will be here, mate," Harry assured his fidgeting friend once again. "Stop going mental."

"Right, it's easy for you, isn't it? You've been with Ginny this whole time. As soon as I finally started going with the girl I love, she took off." Harry had heard the complaints in a constant litany ever since they had seen Hermione off a month ago. It was something easier for him to focus on, Harry figured. The loss of Hermione was temporary, but the loss of Fred was permanent.

"Come off it. You know she had to be with her parents after all of that mess. She had been roaming around with a couple of mangy blokes for the better part of a year, sleeping in a tent, and having no contact with her poor, uninformed, muggle parents. Besides, I imagine taking a breath from this world was much needed. The world is healing mate, but it's slow. We've each got to, you know, figure out how to heal ourselves or whatever."

Spontaneous speeches such as this one were much more common amongst the wizarding world after Lord Voldemort was killed. Everyone had lost someone, and everyone was still a little afraid of getting too comfortable in their newfound safety. The world was different now. People felt everything more fiercely than before: love, pain, camaraderie. All of it was more intense, more real.

The two young men were pulled out of their internal musings by the whistle of a train signaling their friend's return. Ron near about jumped out of his skin as the train rolled to a painfully lethargic stop beside the platform. His eager eyes scanned each window as it passed by for that shock of frizzy, brown hair.

"Harry, I don't see her," Ron tugged sharply on Harry's arm like a toddler who was feeling neglected.

"How's about you let the passengers get off the train before you detach my shoulder, eh mate?"

"What if she changed her mind?" he asked, panicked eyes scanning the disembarking passengers. "It could happen, you know. She could meet some muggle stud while she was gone and-"

"Ron," his friend interrupted, "she has been in love with you for years, mate. Stop loosing your bloody mind."

"Ron! Harry!" both boys whipped around to see her jogging towards them clad in tight fitting jeans tucked into dark brown boots with a fitted, lavender Edwardian style jacket on top. The boys, of course, did not notice any of her carefully casual yet alluring choice that she had spent an hour this morning deciding on. Ron disengaged from his friend to run headlong for his girlfriend. She threw her harms around his neck as he lifted her into the air in an all-encompassing hug and spun her around. She laughed as she hugged his neck tightly, but her giggles were cut off by his enthusiastic lips crashing onto hers. Harry laughed and made his was at a more reasonable pace toward his friends to allow them to have a moment of reunion. Harry had been very happy to discover that the dynamic between the three of them had not become awkward after his two best friends got together- a concern that had been at the back of his mind ever since it became apparent that they had feelings for one another. They were a couple now, but foremost, they were all three still best friends.

Hermione had been able to disengage by the time Harry made his was over and pulled herself out of Ron's arms to give Harry an excited hug. He squeezed her tightly, happy to be reunited with the girl who had been with him through so much.

"How you been, Hermione?" he asked pulling away and ruffling her hair playfully to her irritation. She swatted at his hand, managing to look annoyed with the dark haired boy after less than a minute which caused Harry to smile once again.

"Alright," she responded, "I feel like I freaked my Mum and Dad out when I was there. They havn't seen me be so clingy and affectionate towards them since I was just a kid. I mean, I've told them all along the history of He Who Must No- I mean, Lord Voldemort. It's still a bit hard to say that without worrying, you know? Anyways, they never fully understood what was happening, I don't think. Seeing me so happy and so heartbroken all at once after disappearing on them for so long has finally made them realize how huge all of this had been." She kept a hold of one of Harry's hands as she leaned into Ron and looked up at him with unconcealed love in her eyes. The same look was reflected back down at her. The three of them all reflected for a moment before breaking into smiles and light banter about what they had all been up to for the past four weeks. Harry and Ron each grabbed one of Hermione's bags as they headed out to the car Ron had borrowed from Arthur to head back to the Burrow.

They were all together again, and it felt right.

**Okay, cute Ron and Hermione scene to come. Please review and let me know what y'all think! Thanx :p**


End file.
